A big surprise and a day out

Hello everyone.  Friday night hubby said to me, "I've bought you a pressie."  He handed me a newspaper and I laughed because I've been asking him to bring me home newspaper to have on hand for when I do messy crafts.  He then said, "I've bought you another pressie."  I looked up and he handed me a box containing a brand new Cannon G12 camera.  SQUEAL.   I could have been knocked over by a feather.  We had been talking about upgrading from our little tiny weeny digital as we are hoping to visit Europe next year.  However, I didn't expect a new camera to come home quite so soon.

Source - Google images

Source - Google images

There is so much to this camera I don't know where to start and I feel like I might have to do a degree before I understand everything.  Hopefully my blog photos will improve, but I'm thinking it might take a while.

 Saturday I went out for the day with my best friend to the Melbourne CBD to have a wander.  The weather was lovely and warm and because the forecast for later in the day was for rain, we made an earlyish start.

After parking the car and wandering thought some arcades and pretty shops, we stopped for morning tea at Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie.

We chose to sit inside rather than out in the arcade.  My friend had a gorgeous little morsel I can't remember the name of and I had a pear puff.  I'm sure you can imagine how yummy it was.

I have two favourite arcades in the Melbourne CBD, the Royal Arcade and the Block Arcade.

This is the Royal Arcade.

I love everything about it.

The Block Arcade

This arcade has the most amazing mosaic floor.

I've promised myself I'll have High Tea in here one day.  These tea rooms in the Block Arcade have been around for a long time by Australian standards.  It looks very posh inside.

We wandered in and out of shops, down streets and around Federation Square and then made our way to Southbank to stop for lunch.  While we were having lunch we enjoyed the river view and I was quite taken with the contrast between the old and new architecture.  The dome building is Flinders Street railway station and the church St. Paul's Cathedral.

A view of the Yarra River with the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in the middle of the photo in the background.

I found some sculptures to photograph as we were meandering but I'm saving them until the end of the month when I post my April Photo Scavenger Hunt photos.  We finished our day with a walk down by the Arts Centre and saw this old tram that has temporarily (I think) been made into a bar.

We headed back to the car and just as we left the CBD, the rain started.  Perfect timing.  We had such a lovely day taking in the atmosphere, the weather and the sights and of course spending the day with my best friend made it perfect.

Until nex time, take care,

Anne  xx

Apricot Coconut Slice

Last week I tried out a new recipe that is super easy and to my delight, the family were very happy with the results.   I tweaked the recipe to my liking and here it is.

Apricot Coconut Slice

Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup milk

1 cup brown sugar

125g melted butter

1 cup desiccated coconut

200g dried apricots, chopped

1 tablespoon ginger powder

1.  Soak apricots in boiling water for 15 minutes, then strain.  (I chopped my apricots after soaking, easy peasy).

2.  Put melted butter in a large bowl, then add fruit, sugar, coconut, milk, flour and ginger, stirring well after each addition.

 

3. Bake at 180 C in a paper-lined 25cm x 30cm lamington tin for about 30 minutes or until cooked.

   4.  Cool in tin and cut into slices when cool.

We tried to wait until the slice was cool before we attacked it, but we just couldn't.  Tastes very nice warm and I think a dollop of cream would be a lovely addition.

If you haven't eaten it all the day it's made, you can have some the next day for morning tea with a latte which is just what I did.

You can leave out the ginger, that was my addition and I also chose to use butter instead of margarine.  Next time I might try using blueberries instead of apricots and a different spice.

Happy baking,

Anne